


Worldbuilding 2: Sage Dislikes Surprises

by JoAsakura



Series: X-Force: Mutant Crimes Investigation Unit [2]
Category: MCIU
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-22
Updated: 2010-10-22
Packaged: 2017-10-12 19:52:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/128438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another MCIU Worldbuilding</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worldbuilding 2: Sage Dislikes Surprises

scene: JFK International Departures.

Math is not Doug Ramsey's first language. Even though, he finds it statistically... *improbable* that there isn't a single jet available from X-Corporation (not to mention the big shiny hero X-Men) any time *his* team has to fly anywhere. (Technically, X-Force in total is Cable's team, but Nate discovered long ago that delegation wasn't such a bad thing after all.) The last time *Sam's* team had to fly somewhere, they got a chartered jet courtesy of the FBI. Fuckers.

But MI-3 in general, and Pete Wisdom specifically, are a bunch of right cheap bastards, which is why Doug is sheepdogging Warpath, Siryn, M, Rictor, Shatterstar AND Cable through the airport to the Virgin Airways terminal. At least Monet was able to puppy-eye her father into helping them pay for essentially taking over the First Class section.

That's not just a need for luxury on Monet's part. Warpath and Cable are both enormous. 'Star is all leg and he and Rictor both have incredibly tiny attention spans. Flying coach just isn't going to be possible. First class also got them into a separate security line, which was good because getting the team through the checkpoint, even WITH the shiny happy federal paperwork and badges they all carry now, is like bringing the circus to town. Jimmy doesn't fit through the metal detector because of his height. Rictor's powers fuck with the body scanners. And only repeated arguments have gotten 'Star to stop lecturing the TSA about his swords.

Doug would thank god for Siryn, but because of her, a bottle of scotch and her drunken insistence at karaoke, they're not allowed to fly out of Newark Liberty International anymore and are banned from every first class lounge on the east coast.

They draw attention, too, as they wait for the flight. Even though, (and Doug, while not a religious sort, thanks whatever deity watches over airports) they're all behaving. It's not just Jimmy or Nate's size, either. Doug's noticed over the years that people with the X-gene tend to be... when not freakish... much more ...attractive than normal humans. Even Nate when he shaves. And even among this cluster of abnormal attractiveness, Monet and 'Star stand out like celebrities. Doug's heard a rumour going around the office that one or both of them have started modelling to earn extra cash. He fantasizes about them affording their own damn plane with it.

scene: Braddock Manor, Excalibur offices.

Sage does not like being surprised.

She was unpleased when Wisdom had informed her that the government was bringing in the MCIU to help Excalibur better integrate with the local constabularies they dealt with. A team half-comprised of Americans running roughshod over the police, especially with a series of mutant-related murders, was not exactly winning hearts and minds.

And while she's not proud of the passive-aggressive hacking she'd done to screw up X-Corporation's flight plans in order to discourage the other team from coming, she still doesn't think they need to be here.

but she's busy ignoring Dazzler (who got flustered when she heard they were coming) and Captain Midlands (who is loudly wondering if any of them are blokes he can nip off to the pub with) and so she reviews the profiles of the team she's about to be afflicted with.

She'd read them once, a few years back, attempting to determine if Cable's then-outlaw-paramilitary group was going to be of any use to anyone. At that time, she noticed a strange resemblence between the one called "Shatterstar" and the pitiable young man she'd left in a vegetative state at the weisman institute. A quick cross check at the time showed Russell still safely comatose and forgotten by Hellfire and everyone else, so she'd dismissed it.

So when Sage's eyes scan the files, and she sees the name "Benjamin Russell" scroll across the screen attached to Shatterstar's image, she actually drops her cup of tea.

Another cross-check. The Weisman Institute's file on Russell -completely altered from her original design- shows he checked himself out with the aid of his uncle, "Nathan Pryor".

Sage does not like being surprised. She likes being frightened even less.

Scene: Braddock Manor, grounds.

They're all jet-lagged, and even the comparitively spacious accomodations that Virgin's First Class section provides, they've all been cooped up for far longer than any member of X-Force, outside of Cypher, can actually tolerate.

Shatterstar hates flying. In airplanes at least. The inflight movie, Iron Man, kept him occupied for a couple of hours, but sitting still after that has been intolerable. Even when he and Rictor had "occupied" the restroom for a bit. Now, his whole body hurts from sitting in the plane and then the car ride to Excalibur's headquarters and all he wants desperately to do is go jogging. Or hit something. Or at least have extremely vigourous sex with his boyfriend outdoors somewhere.

Instead, he's making awkward small talk with Dazzler. He can't bring himself to call her "mother" , despite what Beast's tests on his pre-gestalt body indicated. It's just too weird, even for him. She has talked Julio into them attending her show at a local disco, though.

That's when he notices the very pale woman with the very black hair staring at him.

It takes a moment, but he soon twigs on that she's Sage- she's wearing the same cyberglasses that the MCIU members wear, and he remembers someone telling hm about their creator. She's got no readable expression on her face, which he imagines most people find creepy. He recognizes it from Gaveedra*7's days in the gladiator ring. That lack of expression could save a performer's life. But there's something else, in the mangled jumble of Ben Russell's later memories. He can't say where or when, but they've met before, he's sure of it.

And that thought leaves him immensely uncomfortable.

Scene: Braddock Manor, Excalibur Meeting Room

Nate and Doug are doing most of the talking. The rest of the team will review evidence later on and talk to the Excalibur members about better using their powers more in terms of forensics and investigation than hitting things until they stop moving. Julio has to admit, he's learned to do things with his powers that he'd never thought about, but he's heard this spiel before, and he's more interested in why 'Star keeps shooting sidelong glances at Sage.

Ever since the Sand Incident, they've been sort of walking on eggshells with each other- mostly because Ric stll remembers what he'd been forced to do to 'Star, and that makes him just a little sick to his stomach every time they touch. As a result, he's gotten hyper-aware of 'Star's body language, and he wonders if this is what it's like to be Doug all the time.

After about ten minutes, he gently touches 'Star's arm and leads him out into the corridor. At first his questions are met by typical Shatterstar handwaving. His boyfriend is a master at the art of omitting information if he thinks it's not relevant to other people, but Julio is a master at getting 'Star to fold.

Julio knows he's won when 'Star gives him the power-scowl and drags him further away from the conference room.

"You're aware, that I possess 2 sets of memories." 'Star says, and it sounds like he's saying it for his own benefit because Julio still remembers very clearly the day when it wasn't Gaveedra*7's awkward half-smirk, but what could have only been Ben Russell's smile cross 'Star's face. "I.. there is a place where, when I think about it, I can't remember clearly. I remember arriving in New York as Benjamin Russell, and then I remember waking up as Shatterstar." He says, hands doing that aggrivated fidget when he can't explain something fully. All any of them know, from the records that came with the body, that Russell's powers had left him comatose.

Spiral had been unusually kind that day, but hadn't exactly shed any further light on him. "But there are parts.. flashes of memory, Julio." 'Star flails slightly again and only stops when Ric takes those big hands in his own. "And that woman is in them. I know it."

Scene: Braddock Manor, Conference Room

Behind her cyberglasses, Sage watches the exchange in the corridor and frowns.

She had buried all the data on Benjamin Russell years ago, convinced Shaw that whatever happened had been a freak occurrence and had gone on with her life, secure in the knowledge that a Celestial-class reality warper was brain dead and most likely going to die naturally in a few years anyways.

She keeps files on all of them, the most dangerous of their breed, the ones capable of planetary-scale events. The Omega+, the Celestial-class powers. The Scarlet Witch, Phoenix, Franklin Richards. Cable himself is on that list, even though he spends a great deal of his power on managing his particular TO infection. She's been keeping an eye on Rictor lately as well- the geomover's recent acts have worryingly shown him to be more powerful than any of the others of his kind - she'd thought to get a sample of his DNA to test the theory whilst his team was here, even. But she'd never thought to keep closer watch on his partner- ranked as a gamma-level audiokinetic and psychometer. Why would she? Both powers easily explained by his parentage and he relied more on his fighting skills than his powers anyways.

Ben Russell never knew the true extent of his abilities, and it appears that Shatterstar doesn't either. But if he remembers her, and what happened during his time with the Hellfire Club, that could change.

It would be, Sage thinks briefly, prudent to kill him before he accidentally does some real damage.


End file.
